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As a company grows from the single founder to a multi-personnel team, the founder needs to be able to identify good leaders among the group. A great salesman might not be a great leader. So it is important to distinguish between good performance skills and leadership performance skills. Can the person you are looking at learn to be a good leader? Some people are natural leaders and they will be obvious. It is identifying the ones that have the capability to learn leadership over time that are hard to find.l

Here are some traits to help you identify the potential leader.

• One of the best ways to determine the future is by looking at what happened in the past. Has this person been a leader in the past? Has he been a Boy Scout leader or held some other leadership positions?

• Does she show a capacity to catch or create the vision? Watch to see if her eyes light up when the future is discussed. What kind of questions does she ask about what you are talking about.

• A person who doesn’t feel the thrill of a challenge will not be a good leader, at least not for the project you have in mind. Don’t write this person off completely. He might be just great on another project.

• Does she have a constructive spirit of discontent. This is different than criticism. If she suggests that there has to be a better way to do something ask if she has ever thought about a better. If the answer is no, she is critical, not constructive. If she says yes, she is challenged by a constructive spirit of discontent. This is always found in a leader.

• People who are so locked into doing things the way they have always been done are not potential leaders. A potential leader is always on the look-out for a better way.

• Likewise you don’t want someone who thinks completely abstractly. You need people with practical ideas or who can say that some idea will or will not work and why.

• On the other hand people with practical ideas are potential leaders, but leaders seem to know whether an idea is practical or not.

• A potential leader is willing to take responsibility. He will not be intimidated by carry responsibility because the joy of accomplishment-the vicarious feeling of contributing to other people –is what leadership is about.

• Does the potential leader show a willingness to complete the project? Try putting together a team of people who don’t normally solve a particular problem. Set that before them and see who grabs the problem and won’t let go. She is your potential leader because sometimes there is nothing but one’s will to keep going.

• This goes along with the attribute of mental toughness. Leaders get criticized and face discouragement. A potential leader will need to be mentally tough, which is not the same as mean. Tough-minded leaders see things as they are and are willing to pay the price. One thing about leadership is that it creates a separation from one’s peers. Leadership is lonely. The leader must be able to keep his own counsel until the right time.

• Peer and family respect are also important beacons to seeing a potential leader. While peer respect doesn’t prove ability, it shows character and personality. Peers who want their associate to succeed  point to that associate having respect of her peers. The same applies to respect from family members. If there is no respect, that will be obvious in the home.

• The last quality to look at is the ability to get people to listen to the potential leader. When he speaks, do the others listen? Some people talk a lot, but no one listens. Making a speech is not the same as being a leader.

How do you identify the potential leaders in your company? Please answer in the comment box below.

This information is based on Fred Smith, LEADERSHIP JOURNAL; Fall 1996, Vol. XYII, No. 4, page 30, which I found at http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/LeadQual.html. We will look at more of Smith’s work in the weeks ahead.

Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.

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